Shoe-polishing machine



y 1942- H. M. HEUYER 1 2,283,063

SHOE-POLISHING MACHINE 1 Filed Jan} 17, 1940 4 sheets-sheet 1 May 12, 1942.

HQM. HEUVER SHOE POLISHING MACHINE Filed Jan. 17, 1940 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 1. 'VENTOR. lye/166W) 2/60 n r A TTORNEYI.

May 12, 1942. H. M. HEUVER SHOE-POLISHING; MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 17, 1940 6 MEN IN NTOR. f/arlyerifl Aim/a I 9MP" Q 4TTORVEY5 Patented May 12,1942

STE 7 rric 3 Claims.

This invention relates to shoe-polishing machines and for its general object aims to provide a machine of relatively simple construction which embraces certain advances in the performance of its polishing ofiice over shoe-polishing machines heretofore devised.

In reference to these advances, the invention aims to provide a machine adapting itself most effectively to various sizes and shapes of shoes; to provide a machine in which possibility of damage to a shoe being polished is eliminated; to provide a machine in which the polishing office is accomplished by armechanical movement capable of accommodating the multifarious curves of a shoe most advantageously; to provide a polishing machine having polish-applying devices associated with the polishing mechanism; and to provide a machine embodying, with the foregoing, such other improvements as to assure successful operation by the public, either with or without a coin control, with little if any danger of breakage and with a minimum of servicing.

The invention consists in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary plan view of one embodiment of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section thereof taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section on line 33 of Fig. 1 illustrating a shoe as the same is positioned preparatory to a polishing operation and indicating, somewhat schematically, a polish-applying unit which functions to coat the polishing surfaces of the machine; and

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section taken on a line which would correspond with the section line of Fig. 3 through a machine embodying certain modifications from the disclosure of Figs. 1 through 3.

Describing first the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 through 3, I provide a suitable base 6 supporting, at opposite sides of its longitudinal median line, pairs of posts or standards 1-8 and 9l0 on which are carried footrests H and II, the purpose of the two rests being to permit, by selective use, polishing of either black or brown shoes in that black polish is supplied to the one and brown polish to the other side of the machine.

Applied over the two foot-rests in housing relation to a shoe supported thereby are what I term shoe-cases, and these shoe-cases, indicated by l3 and M, are each of a shape corresponding to but somewhat larger than a shoe and are each provided with a lining 15 of a suitable material capable of receiving a thin coating of polish and, upon applicationof a shoe, transfer the same to the shoe and thereupon create a shine by rubbing contact. 'I find that sheep skin is especially advantageous for this purpose.

In further reference to said shoe-cases as the two shoe-cases, consists of a crank 22 which is given a wrist connection with the pulley by a collar-disc 23 for shifting movement of the driving eccentric spindle 22' between two stops 24 and 25, the former stop being so located as to hold the driving eccentric slightly off center Wherefrom the same is influenced by centrifugal action in opposition to a spring 25 toward the other stop 25. The two stops, which are indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1, are carried by the pulley [1. The driving eccentric spindle 22 connects with the plate It through the instrumentality of a bearing-nut 2T fitting over and held on the eccentric spindle by a thrust washer, and functioning to hold the plate in line against the rotary influence of the drive are jack-knifing links 28-29 and 30-13! coupled for parallel movement by a cross-arm 32, the free ends of the links 28 and 30 being pivotally connected to the plate It and the root ends of the links 29 and 3| being pivotally anchored to the post 1 and 9. As will, it is believed, be clear, the parallel linkage operates to constrain the plate It such that the longitudinal median line of the plate remains in fixed angular relation to a line taken through the anchoring points of the links 29 and 3|,-

which is to say in fixed angular relation to a plane common to both posts I and 9.

In supplying the polish to the lining of the' shoe-cases, an operation which is performed preliminary to the introduction of the shoe, I employ a spray-head 33 functioning in the manner of a paint gun in that the polish, a liquid, is delivered in an atomized state by the inductive effect of a pressure jet of air. The manner of my application is to force an accelerated stream of air by means of a plunger or equivalent source of compression pressure, as 34, through an air line 35 into the spray-head 33 from where the same is delivered at a high velocity over the seating surface of a spring-closing mushroom valve 36, inducing by its ejection a discharge of liquid polish which is drawn from a float-chamber 39, the float chamber being fed from a reservoir 40, While I represent the plunger 34 as being actuated by the user through depression of a footpedal 4| it is obvious that the same might be motor-actuated.

I find, in applying the polish, that a single spray-head for each of the shoe-cases, supported in the toe portion of the latter, functions to effectively coat substantially the entire exposed surface of the sheep skin with a very thin film of the polish, the polish as delivered in its atomized state momentarily hanging as a cloud within the confines of the case, and presumably being attracted by cohesion to the tips of the fur hair. I point out that this coating has, apparently, no tendency to penetrate beyond the hair tips nor to produce a crust upon or mat the fur and, consequently, the direct application of the polish in an atomized state is in no way deleterious to the polishing office of the sheep skin.

In producing my shoe-cases I prefer to mold the same from rubber of such formulation as to permit what may be termed a resistant fiexure, which is to say a fiexure which will more or less closely hug the surface of a shoe being polished while retaining the necessary firmness to produce a high polish by the frictional rub.

Describing now the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 4, I provide a modified foot-rest, as H, carried by a shaft 42 for vertical movement in a slide bearing 43, the foot-rest being normally urged by a spring 44 into the position represented by full lines from where the same is depressed by the shoe of the user into the operating pbsition represented by dotted lines, electric terminals 4546 being effective by movement into the latter position to close a normally open circuit including the motor l9.

Also shown in the embodiment of Fig. 4 is an arrangement by means of which the toe-part of the shoe-case is deflectible upwardly upon application of a shoe thereto for better accommodating the shoe-case to differing shapes and sizes of shoes placed therein. In this modification I fix the two shoe-cases, which is to say the one for brown and the other for black shoes, on transverse plates 41 and pivot these plates, as at 48, to a subjacent plate l6" connecting with the driving eccentric 22', linkage equivalent to the parts 2829-303l32 being carried from the plate [6' to a post 1'. Limited by a stop 49, springs yieldably depress the toe of the shoecase against the toe of an introduced shoe.

The detailed description of the illustrated parts, referring as it does to the respective functions, is believed to obviate need for further reference to the manner of employing the machine. It is here pointed out, while for simplicity in illustration the shoe-cases appear to occupy a horizontal plane, that the desirable location of the same is at a slight inclination to a bed-plate 6', the latter occupying a horizontal plane. Numerous changes may be resorted to other than those herein referred to without thereby departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is accordingly my intention that the hereto annexed claims be given a scope in their interpretation commensurate with the state of the advance in the art.

What I claim is:

1. In a shoe-polishing machine, in combination: a motor; a polishing device; an eccentric means driven from the motor and having interconnection with the polishing device to bodily move the latter in an approximately circular path; parallel linkage connected with the polishing device arranged and adapted to constrain the polishing device to positions parallel to a given position; and a fixed foot-rest for supporting a shoe in polishing relation to the polishing device.

2. A shoe-polishing machine according to claim 1 characterized in that said eccentric means is freely mounted for movement away from its center of rotation, means being provided to yieldingly urge said eccentric means back towards said center of rotation.

3. In a shoe-polishing machine, in combination: a motor; a polishing device; an eccentric means driven from themotor and having interconnection with the polishing device to bodily move the latter in an approximately circular path, said eccentric means being freely mounted for movement away from its center of rotation; means for yieldingly urging said eccentric means back towards said center of rotation; means operatively associated with the polishing device ar ranged and adapted to constrain the eccentricinfluenced polishing device against rotation; and

a foot-rest for supporting a shoe in polishing relation to said eccentric-influenced polishing device.

HERBERT M. HEUVER. 

